CGS Professor Gets an Assist from Students on New Book on Pivotal NBA Season

Tom Whalen’s next project, set to be published in 2024, will do a deep dive into the 1983–84 NBA season

By Chelsea Feinstein

Tom Whalen is a prolific author of books about politics and sports in the Boston area. When the Red Sox Ruled (Ivan R. Dee, 2011) is about the team’s dynasty of the 1910s; JFK and His Enemies: A Portrait of Power (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) covers the 35th president and his adversarial relationships with domestic and foreign leaders; and Kooks and Degenerates on Ice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020) delves into the Boston Bruins’ 1970 Stanley Cup championship season.

Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences, is writing his latest book, an as yet untitled deep dive into the 1983–84 NBA season, set to be published in 2024. This time, he has enlisted the help of two CGS students, Andrea Ventura (’22, CAS’24) and Michael Dupre (’22, CAS’24), through the Center for Interdisciplinary Teaching & Learning’s (CITL) Undergraduate Research Experience (URE).

Ventura and Dupre have helped with archival research and interviews in support of the book. Ventura worked alongside Whalen in the fall of 2021, spring of 2022, and fall of 2022 semesters, and Dupre in the summer of 2022.

The book will focus on a season that Whalen says changed the NBA forever, pulling the league back from the brink of financial ruin and putting it on course to become a powerhouse in American culture. It will explore how the rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, who faced each other in that season’s NBA finals, was a microcosm of the national zeitgeist.

The rivalry between the Celtics’ Larry Bird and the Lakers’ Magic Johnson reflected racial tensions across the country and in Boston, where repercussions from the desegregation of Boston schools and busing policy were still being felt, according to Whalen. At the same time, women sportswriters were just gaining access to locker rooms for interviews, challenging the gender dynamics of the field.

The Bird/Johnson rivalry captivated the national consciousness, leading to unprecedented ratings for the once-struggling NBA.

“Here is this team that in many ways unites white and Black communities together in the Boston area, and they meet one of the most talented and probably the greatest team in the NBA of the 1980s,” Whalen says.

The intersection of sports and politics has long fascinated Whalen, who believes the subject is understudied. “I think sport in academia is not looked on seriously enough,” he says. 

Whalen had never employed undergraduate researchers to assist on a book before. But when he suffered a stroke in the summer of 2021, he realized having extra help would be critical in keeping him on track as he recovered. He says the students’ work on archive research, their help conducting interviews, and their managing the technical side of the interview process provided him more time to focus on writing.

CGS’ undergraduate research program, including the Undergraduate Research Experience, benefits everyone involved. Faculty get much-needed help on research projects and publications, and CGS students gain hands-on research experience while being paid for their work.

“It’s a two-way street,” Whalen says. “Certainly the professors benefit from all this hard work and we get ideas from the researchers; they point out insights that we don’t necessarily get the first time around. And I think [the students] pick up certain things that they can use regardless of whether they enter an academic field or not.”

Research opportunities for CGS students have grown dramatically in recent years. Through CITL, the college funds more than 55 undergraduate researchers each year—up from just one per year a decade ago—allowing students to pursue paid research as early as their freshman year.

Ventura and Dupre connected with Whalen in different ways. Ventura’s CGS academic advisor, Jeffrey Sierra, who learned about Ventura’s interest in basketball, notified her that Whalen was in search of a student researcher for the book. Dupre was searching for an undergraduate research opportunity when he met with Donna Connor, the CITL administrative coordinator. Connor (CAS’89) suggested Dupre connect with Whalen, considering his interests in sports and politics.

“I’m a lifelong Celtics fan,” says Dupre, “so it was a really cool way for me to meet some people who are associated with the organization and could touch on the history of it. It was a passion project as much as it was a learning opportunity for me.”

The students worked on the project for about eight hours per week. They completed archival research, scouring newspapers and other primary sources, and assisted with interviews with important figures in the story. Ventura says the highlight of her research experience was helping Whalen interview Diane Shah, the first female sports columnist for a major daily newspaper, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; for Dupre, it was sitting in on interviews with legendary Boston Globe sportswriters Bob Ryan and Dan Shaughnessy.

Both students say observing Whalen taught them a lot about how to conduct interviews. Ventura also says she learned the importance of resilience in a project of this scope; she bounced back from a number of challenges during her URE, such as being rejected by potential interview subjects. Dupre says the experience has given him more confidence in his research skills.

Whalen hopes that the students have learned about the process of research and writing, which he says will serve them no matter what field they choose to go into. “I try to show them the mechanics,” he says. “It doesn’t take magic. It takes a lot of hard work, curiosity, and a never-say-die attitude. You just have to get it done.”

Ventura says helping Whalen with the book has been one of her most rewarding experiences at BU. “At CGS, where the professors come from diverse fields of expertise, there is likely a match for any student no matter how niche their interests are,” she says. “Since students are able to research topics that align with their own passions, the URE doesn’t feel like work—it’s as gratifying as it is exciting.”